1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning device for cleaning certain elements in the tape path, such as, the sound head, capstan and pinch roller, tape guides, erase head and the like of a tape cassette player recorder of the type having a cassette receiving area and a take-up and a feed spindle in the cassette receiving area for engaging tape spools of a tape cassette.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Such cleaning devices for cassette player recorders are known, for example, British Patent Specification No. 2086639 discloses such a cleaning device. The device of this British Patent comprises a housing which is substantially similar to the housing of a tape cassette. A pair of gear wheels are rotatably mounted in the cassette, one engaging each of the spindles in the cassette receiving area. An intermediate gear transmits drive from one gear to the other. An eccentrically mounted member on the intermediate gear drives a reciprocating member at the free end of which is mounted a pice of cleaning felt which bears on the sound head of the cassette player recorder, and the reciprocating action imparted by the eccentric member causes the cleaning member to wipe backwards and forwards across the sound head. In this particular cleaning device a pair of felt members are provided on each side of the cassette housing for bearing on the capstan and pinch roller assembly for cleaning.
This device suffers from a number of disadvantages. Firstly, because the two felt members on each side of the housing are statically mounted, the cleaning action is passive. This presents considerable problems when the capstan and pinch roller are protected by a guard, or mounted slightly behind a guide or erase head as is often the case. Such guards, guides or erase heads effectively prevent contact between the passive felt cleaning members and the capstan and pinch roller. Thus, it will be appreciated only limited cleaning of the capstan and pinch roller can be achieved, and in some cases, virtually no cleaning of the capstan and pinch roller is achieved.
A second disadvantage is caused by the fact that the cleaning member for cleaning the sound head and the capstan and pinch roller assembly is a solid piece of felt. It has been found that the cleaning action which can be achieved by the felt is limited, in that because the felt is a fairly rigid type of material, only line or point contact between the cleaning felt and the sound head and capstan and pinch roller can be achieved. Thus, if either the felt or the sound head are slightly off-line, only portion of the sound head is cleaned. A further disadvantage using felt is where the sound head is provided with guide members on each side to guide the passage of the tape thereacross. In such case, the guide members prevent adequate cleaning of the sound head by the felt cleaning member in that the felt cleaning member cannot penetrate into the crevices and corners between the sound head and the guide members.
A further and very important disadvantage of most known cleaning devices is that in general, such devices only clean a limited surface area of the various elements. In other words, they only clean along the very narrow path over which the tape passes. It has been found that most large dirt deposits which collect on these elements tend to collect, not on the portion of the element over which the tape passes, but rather on each side of the path along which the tape passes. This is probably due to the fact that the tape, by virtue of the fact that it wipes past these elements, has a certain inherent cleaning ability. However, the problem that is caused by these dirt deposits is that when they are touched by the tape, they become dislodged, and thus interfere with the operation of the elements. It will therefore be appreciated that where a cleaning device uses a felt cleaning member, because of the relative rigidity of the felt, the cleaning member does not clean beyond the tape path.
Similarly, where cleaning devices using cleaning tapes are used, a similar problem arises, in that the cleaning tape only cleans the portion of the elements over which the tape passes.
A further disadvantage of this device is that by virtue of the fact that the take-up spindle has to drive the feed spindle continuously, energy is absorbed in driving the spindle which could otherwise have been used for cleaning. In many cassette player recorders, it is essential that the feed spindle should rotate for at least part of the time, otherwise, control protection devices in the cassette player recorder would shut down the cassette player. However, continuously driving the spindle in its feed spindle absorbs unnecessary quantities of energy.
Other cleaning devices operate on substantially similar principles to that disclosed in the specification of British Patent Specification No. 2086639 and accordingly, similar comments apply.
There is therefore a need for a cleaning device which overcomes the problems of these known cleaning devices.